George W. Bush's domestic spying: Related Articles & Commentary 2001-2005

The following are articles & commentary 2001-2005 related to George W. Bush's secret domestic spying.

Also see

• Articles & Commentary 2006
• Related SourceWatch Resources

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2001

• David Ensor, "In-Depth Special: Inside the NSA: The secret world of electronic spying," CNN, March 19-23, 2001:

• "Brave new world. Agency's challenges more complex in post-Cold War era."
• "The NSA: Spying on you? Agency's power, technological prowess raise privacy concerns."
• "Secret weapons. High-tech advances keep crack code team in security vanguard."
• "Linguist up to his ears tracking security threats."
• "Keeping America's secrets safe. Working at the secretive NSA means opening up personal life."

2004

• John W. Dean, "The Post-Truth Presidency. The unintended consequences of presidential lying," The Washington Monthly, November 2004.

2005

December 2005

• James Risen and Eric Lichtblau "Bush Secretly Lifted Some Limits on Spying in U.S. After 9/11, Officials Say," New York Times (RSS), December 15, 2005.
• James Risen and Eric Lichtblau "Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts," New York Times (print), December 16, 2005; (Common Dreams).
• Dan Eggen, "Bush Authorized Domestic Spying. Post-9/11 Order Bypassed Special Court," Washington Post, December 16, 2005.
• "Bush 'backed spying on Americans'" and "Q&A: US domestic spying row," BBC, December 16, 2005: "After allegations that President Bush authorised a US intelligence agency to eavesdrop on American citizens without court approval, the BBC News website considers some key questions."
• Tom Regan, "Bush allowed spying on Americans in US after 9/11. Presidential order authorized NSA to eavesdrop without court warrants," Christian Science Monitor, December 16, 2005.
• Christine Hauser, "Bush Declines to Discuss Report on Eavesdropping," New York Times, December 16, 2005.
• "N.Y. Times statement defends NSA reporting. 'The question was not why we would publish it, but why we would not'," CNN, December 16, 2005.
• Laura Rozen, "A scoop deferred," War and Piece, December 16, 2005.
• "Rice Denies U.S. Broke Law Amid Report Bush Authorized Spying," Bloomberg News, December 16, 2005.
• "Specter Says Senate to Probe Report U.S. Broke Law on Spying," Bloomberg News, December 16, 2005.
• "Bush spying claim causes US storm," BBC, December 16, 2005.
• Larry Johnson, "Spying on Americans and John Bolton," TPM Cafe, December 16, 2005: "During the confirmation hearings of John Bolton as the U.S. representative to the United Nations, it came to light that the NSA had freely revealed intercepted conversations of U.S. citizens to Bolton while he served at the State Department. ... More generally, Newsweek reports that from January 2004 to May 2005, the NSA supplied intercepts and names of 10,000 U.S. citizens to policy-makers at many departments, other U.S. intelligence services, and law enforcement agencies."
• Larry Abramson, "Bush Said to Approve Post-Sept. 11 Eavesdropping," NPR, December 16, 2005.
• "Domestic Spying and a Delayed Report," NPR, December 16, 2005.
• "Politics with Juan Williams: Spying and the Patriot Act," NPR, December 16, 2005.
• jesselee, "George Miller on Domestic Spying," The Stakeholder, December 16, 2005.
• Morton H. Halperin, "President Bush and Domestic Spying by NSA," Center for American Progress, December 16, 2005.
• Will Bunch, "The Big Stall: How Bush gamed the media to get re-elected in 2004," Attytood, December 16, 2005.
• Rob, "Action Alerts: Tell Congress to kill the Patriot Act until we get answers about Bush's illegal domestic spying," AMERICAblog, December 16, 2005.
• John Aravosis, "If Bush thought eavesdropping laws were too onerous post 9/11, he was required to ask Congress to CHANGE THE LAW, not just violate it for 3 years," AMERICAblog, December 16, 2005.
• Hilzoy, " ... This is against the law," Political Animal, December 16, 2005.
• georgia10, "NY Times Self-Censorship, AKA 'the President's Press'," Daily Kos, December 16, 2005.
• "Jack Cafferty on the administration: Just Do it!" Crooks and Liars, December 16, 2005.
• Jim Romenesko, "Bush: NYT spying story isn't the day's top news," Poynter Online, December 16, 2005: "From the transcript of Jim Lehrer's interview with President Bush, to air Friday night on PBS."
• Kelli Arena, "Bush won't confirm report NSA spied on Americans," CNN, December 17, 2005 (8:33 AM EST).
• Katherine Shrader, "Bush Approved Eavesdropping, Official Says," Associated Press (ABC News), December 17, 2005 (9:51 AM EST): Bush "has personally authorized a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States more than three dozen times since October 2001, a senior intelligence official said Friday night."
• Maura Reynolds and Greg Miller, "Privacy Rights and National Security: After revelations the U.S. spied on its own citizens, the Senate puts the brakes on controversial post-9/11 measures intended to fight terrorism. Surveillance: Senators demand Bush explain secret eavesdropping," San Francisco Chronicle, December 17, 2005.
• "Bush stands firm over spying row. President George W Bush insists he has not compromised civil liberties, after it was alleged he authorised people in the US to be bugged without a warrant," BBC, December 17, 2005 (13:49 GMT).
• "Bush admits he authorised spying," BBC, December 17, 2005 (16:14 GMT).
• Scott Shane, "Behind Power, One Principle as Bush Pushes Prerogatives," New York Times, December 17, 2005.
• Dan Eggen and Charles Lane, "On Hill, Anger and Calls for Hearings Greet News of Stateside Surveillance," Washington Post, December 17, 2005.
• Judd Legum, "Yesterday, Bush Said Confirming NYT Story 'Would Compromise Our Ability To Protect The People'," Think Progress, December 17, 2005: "For 24 hours, Bush and other top administration officials refused to confirm the existence of their secret domestic spying program, arguing that doing so would endanger the American people. .... This morning, President Bush not only confirmed the existence of the program but provided details about how it worked. ... This demonstrates that the administration’s initial refusal to comment was not motivated by security concerns. If that was the case Bush still wouldn’t have been able to comment this morning. Rather, the refusal to comment was a public relations strategy. When they decided it wasn’t working, they scrapped it and tried something else."
• "Democratic senator says Bush violated law with wiretaps: He is a president, not a king," The Raw Story, December 17, 2005: "From a release issued to RAW STORY by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) in response to President Bush's admission Saturday that the president personally authorized wiretaps of individuals who emailed or phoned other countries." Includes Feingold's "Fact Sheet on Domestic Intelligence Wiretaps."
• Deanne Stillman, "The Tippling Point," The Huffington Post, December 17, 2005.
• smintheus, "Operation Flabbergasted: Let's Watergate Bush," Daily Kos, December 17, 2005: "This cannot stand. In ordering the NSA to spy secretly on America, George Bush has: overturned United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18, which prohibits domestic spying by the NSA; violated the federal act which created the FISA court to oversee covert domestic investigations; and trampled upon the Fourth Amendment guarantee against warrantless searches. It cannot stand for a day, much less a month while Congress is in recess." Also see Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo, Ezra Klein's blog, and "January 2005: Gonzales Said Bush Did Not 'Authorize Actions…In Contravention of Our Criminal Statutes'" at Think Progress on FISA and this report on 2002 FISA requests.
• Editorial: "This Call May Be Monitored ... ," New York Times, December 18, 2005.
• Peter Baker, "President Acknowledges Approving Secretive Eavesdropping. Bush Also Urges Congress to Extend Patriot Act," Washington Post, December 18, 2005.
• Charles Babington, "Domestic Spying Issue Inflames Debate Over Patriot Act Renewal," Washington Post, December 18, 2005.
• Barton Gellman and Dafna Linzer, "Pushing the Limits Of Wartime Powers," Washington Post, December 18, 2005.
• Editorial: "Spying on Americans," Washington Post, December 18, 2005.
• "Reid Seeks Probe of Bush Domestic Spying," Associated Press, December 18, 2005.
• Dana Milbank, "Bush's Fumbles Spur New Talk of Oversight on Hill," Washington Post, December 18, 2005.
• David E. Sanger, "In Address, Bush Says He Ordered Domestic Spying," New York Times, December 18, 2005.
• Editorial: "Bigger Brother," Los Angeles Times, December 18, 2005.
• Rick Schmitt and Mary Curtius, "Bush Defends Eavesdropping as Defense Against Terrorism. He vows to continue the newly acknowledged domestic program despite mounting criticism, even from within his own party," Los Angeles Times, December 18, 2005.
• David G. Savage and Bob Drogin, "Legality of Wiretaps Remains in Question," Los Angeles Times, December 18, 2005.
• Eric Lichtblau and James Risen, "Eavesdropping Effort Began Soon After Sept. 11 Attacks," New York Times, December 18, 2005.
• "Condi: I am not a crook! Sorry, I meant: I am not a lawyer!" Crooks and Liars, December 18, 2005. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with Tim Russert. WMP link on page; full transcript. Also see "Stumped: Condi Unable to Explain What Gave Bush Authority to Eavesdrop Without Warrant" at Think Progress.
• Laura Rozen, "There's something else about the Bush/NSA warrantless, oversight-less spying on Americans that doesn't make sense," War and Piece, December 18, 2005.
• Hilzoy, "Bush and the Separation of Powers," Political Animal, December 18, 2005.
• Nico Pitney, "Former Intel Chairman Graham: White House Made 'No Reference' to NSA Program In Briefings," Think Progress, December 18, 2005.
• Noah Shachtman, "New Tech Behind NSA Snoop Case?" DefenseTech.org, December 18, 2005.
• Hope Yen, "Lawmakers Call for Domestic Spying Probe. Democrats and Republicans Call Separately for Congressional Probe Into Domestic Spying Program," Associated Press (ABC News), December 18, 2005.
• "Editorial: Big Brother Bush / The president took a step toward a police state," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 18, 2005.
• Katrina Vanden Heuvel, "Spying and Lying," The Nation, December 18, 2005.
• "John McCain: Bush Right to Use NSA," NewsMax, December 18, 2005.
• "Democrats call for investigation of NSA wiretaps," CNN, December 19, 2005.
• Press Briefing by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and General Michael Hayden, Principal Deputy Director for National Intelligence, James S. Brady Briefing Room, December 19, 2005 (8:30 A.M. EST). re Alberto R. Gonzales and Michael V. Hayden.
• georgia10, "Gonzales: Congress Gave President The Authority To Spy On Americans," Daily Kos, December 19, 2005.
• Pauline Jelinek, "Gonzales Says Congress Authorized Spying," Associated Press (Yahoo! News), December 19, 2005 (10:15 A.M. EST).
• George W. Bush, News Release: Press Conference of the President, White House East Room, December 19, 2005 (10:32 A.M. EST).
• "Bush says leaking spy program a 'shameful act'. President vows to continue domestic eavesdropping," NBC News, December 19, 2005.
• Terence Hunt, "Bush Says NSA Surveillance Necessary, Legal," Associated Press (Yahoo! News), December 19, 2005.
• "Bush vows more eavesdropping," Reuters (Yahoo! News), December 19, 2005.
• "Bush defends phone-tapping policy," BBC, December 19, 2005.
• "Bush faces growing storm over secret wire taps," Agence France Presse (Yahoo! News), December 19, 2005.
• "An Impeachable Offense? Bush Admits Authorizing NSA to Eavesdrop on Americans Without Court Approval," Democracy Now!, December 19, 2005.
• David Sirota, "Bush's 'Need for Speed' Argument Runs Into the Truth," The Huffington Post (Common Dreams), December 19, 2005.
• Gail Russell Chaddock, "Congress pushes back, hard, against Bush. Blindsided by news of domestic spying, it is holding up a key bill," Christian Science Monitor, December 19, 2005.
• Sam Rosenfeld, "Laws and Lawlessness," TAPPED, December 19, 2005.
• Ezra Klein, "One Question," TAPPED, December 19, 2005.
• John Aravosis, "Did Bush domestic spy program eavesdrop on American journalists?" AMERICAblog, December 19, 2005.
• Fred Barbash and Peter Baker, "Bush Defends Eavesdropping Program. Congress 'Authorized' Domestic Surveillance in Iraq War Resolution, Says President, Attorney General," Washington Post, December 19, 2005 (3:57 P.M. EST).
• "No President Is Above the Law," by US Senator Robert C. Byrd, Floor Speech, December 19, 2005 (Common Dreams).
• "Missteps in the war on terror," Chicago Tribune, December 19, 2005.
• "Alan Dershowitz: Bush broke the law," Crooks and Liars, December 19, 2005. "Appearing on the Situation Room, Alan slammed King George over the wiretapping scandal." WMP and QT video links on page.
• "King George's federal crime," Crooks and Liars, December 19, 2005. "Jonathan Turley-on the Factor said that President Bush's spying operation is based on a federal crime." No QT or WMP links as of December 20, 2005, but to come.
• Tom Tomorrow, "Wow," This Modern World, December 19, 2005. "Fox’s in-house legal expert, Judge Andrew Napolitano, has strayed off the reservation."
• Jonathan Alter, "Bush’s Snoopgate. The president was so desperate to kill The New York Times’ eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper’s editor and publisher to the Oval Office. But it wasn’t just out of concern about national security," Newsweek (MSNBC), December 19, 2005 (6:17 P.M. EST). Also see Will Bunch, "'All the news that's fit to print' -- except when it's about us," Attytood, December 19, 2005.
• John Aravosis, "Bush lied during his press conference when he said Congress had approved his domestic spying program," AMERICAblog, December 19, 2005 (6:29 P.M. EST). Link to handwritten letter from Senator Jay Rockefeller to VP Dick Cheney "expressing his concern about the secret domestic spying program."
• "Boxer Asks Presidential Scholars About Former White House Counsel's Statement that Bush Admitted to an 'Impeachable Offense'," Senator Barbara Boxer's official Senate website, December 19, 2005.
• Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney, Amanda Terkel and Payson Schwin, "The Truth About Bush's Warrantless Spying," The Progress Report, December 19, 2005.
• Eric Lichtblau and David E. Sanger, "Administration Cites War Vote in Spying Case," New York Times, December 20, 2005.
• Peter Baker and Charles Babington, "Bush Addresses Uproar Over Spying. 'This Is a Different Era, a Different War,' He Says as Some Lawmakers Seek Probe," Washington Post, December 20, 2005.
• George F. Will, "Why Didn't He Ask Congress?" Washington Post, December 20, 2005.
• James Rainey, "Critics Question Timing of Surveillance Story. The New York Times, which knew about the secret wiretaps for more than a year, published because of a reporter's new book, sources say," Los Angeles Times, December 20, 2005.
• William A. Arkin, "Inside NSA's World," Washington Post, December 20, 2005.
• "Congressman calls for Bush impeachment," Associated Press (Access NorthGa), December 20, 2005.
• Doug Ireland, "A Time to Impeach," AlterNet, December 20, 2005.
• Dori Meinert, "Democrats assail wiretaps," Copley News Service (PJStar.com), December 20, 2005.
• "Bush in 2004: We're 'Getting Court Orders' and 'Value the Constitution.' Did He Know He Was Lying?" BuzzFlash, December 20, 2005.
• Press Release: "Pelosi Requests Declassification of Her Letter on NSA Activities": "House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on her request to the Director of National Intelligence to declassify a letter she wrote several years ago to the Bush Administration expressing concerns about the activities of the National Security Agency." Posted on Rep. Pelosi's official website, December 20, 2005.
• Bruce Fein, ". . . unlimited?" Washington Times, December 20, 2005.
• Faiz Shakir, "Conservative Scholars Argue Bush’s Wiretapping Is An Impeachable Offense," Think Progress, December 20, 2005.
• "The Emerging Story Behind the Wiretap Scandal," The Daily Background, December 20, 2005. FISA timeline.
• Chuck Dupree, "FISA, Data Mining, and Total Information Awareness," Bad Attitudes, December 20, 2005: "All of which would only be possible if the plans for Total Information Awareness had been carried through. ... And of course you’ve read Sen. Rockefeller’s [July 17, 2003,] letter [posted at Josh Marshall's Talking Points], which points in that direction as well…"
• Carol D. Leonnig and Dafna Linzer, "Spy Court Judge Quits In Protest. Jurist Concerned Bush Order Tainted Work of Secret Panel," Washington Post, December 21, 2005.
• Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei, "Clash Is Latest Chapter in Bush Effort to Widen Executive Power," Washington Post, December 21, 2005.
• James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, "Purely domestic calls were intercepted. Secret surveillance program apparently broke its own rules," New York Times (San Francisco Chronicle), December 21, 2005.
• Howard Fineman, "Spying, the Constitution — and the 'I-word'. 2006 will offer up Nixon-era nastiness and a chorus of calls to impeach Bush," MSNBC, December 21, 2005.
• Molly Ivins, "So 9/11 Means it's OK to Spy on Americans?" Daily Camera (Boulder, Colorado) (Common Dreams), December 21, 2005.
• Josh Meyer, "Officials Fault Case Bush Cited. Internal breakdowns, not shortcomings in spy laws, were at play before Sept. 11, they say," Los Angeles Times, December 21, 2005.
• Maureen Dowd "The Squires of Surveillance," New York Times (topplebush.com), December 21, 2005.
• Robert Koehler, "Fear of the Devil," Tribune Media Service (OpEdNews), December 21, 2005.
• John Atcheson, "The Real Story Behind Snoopgate," Common Dreams, December 22, 2005.
• "Congress said no on war powers: Daschle," Reuters, December 23, 2005: Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle "said in Friday's edition of The Washington Post [that] the [post-9/11] resolution did not grant President Bush authority to order warrantless spying on Americans suspected of terrorist ties. Daschle said warrantless wiretaps of Americans never came up in the negotiations."
• "US high court nominee urged eavesdropping immunity," Reuters, December 23, 2005.
• Tom Brune, "Alito’s view on wiretaps. Memo he wrote in ’84 reveals he backed official who ordered warrantless wiretap of group in 1970," Newsday, December 23, 2005.
• David G. Savage and Richard A. Serrano, "Alito Backed Immunity for Wiretapping," Los Angeles Times, December 24, 2005: "Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito, Jr. said in a 1984 memo that he believed the president's top lawyer should be shielded from being sued for approving illegal, warrantless wiretaps on the grounds of national security, an issue that has flared anew and could complicate his Senate confirmation next month."
• Charlie Savage, "Alito backed immunity in wiretap case," Boston Globe, December 24, 2005.
• Edward Epstein, "Bush to face tough questions over Patriot Act, spy orders," San Francisco Chronicle, December 24, 2005.
• Tim Rutten, "Regarding Media. Paranoia on the left and the right," CalendarLive.com, December 24, 2005: "WHEN George W. Bush promised that his administration would promote faith-based initiatives, who would have guessed that one of them would involve asserting the divine right of presidents? ... Well, now we know."
• Gabriel Sherman, "Why Times Ran Wiretap Story, Defying Bush," New York Observer, December 26, 2005 (issue).
• "Powell Supports Government Eavesdropping," Associated Press (Washington Post), December 26, 2005.
• "Powell Backs Bush on Domestic Spying," Voice of America, December 26, 2005.
• Sydney H. Schanberg, "Checks and No Balance. The story is Bush's spying, not the story's messenger," Village Voice, December 27, 2005.
• Gal Beckerman, "The Times and the Post Go Silent On Us," CJR Daily, December 27, 2005.
• Joe Strupp, "Some Veteran Journalists Say Times And Post Should Have Disclosed Meeting with Bush on Controversial Stories," Editor & Publisher, December 27, 2005.
• "Secret surveillance up sharply since 9/11," Reuters, December 28, 2005.
• Eric Lichtblau and James Risen, "Defense Lawyers in Terror Cases Plan Challenges Over Spy Efforts," New York Times, December 28, 2005.
• Anick Jesdanun, "NSA Web site puts 'cookies' on computers," Associated Press (BusinessWeek), December 29, 2005.
• Jon Van, "Phone giants mum on spying. In past, industry has cooperated with U.S.," New York Newsday, December 29, 2005.
• Dana Priest, "Covert CIA Program Withstands New Furor. Anti-Terror Effort Continues to Grow," Washington Post, December 30, 2005.